Thrilled by the compact & lightweight lightweight design of  Eastman strings' metrocase. They're they're perfect alternative to a gigbag for my 1933 Gibson L50 and "legends series" L00; especially for NYC living with all the banging around in the subways, crowded streets and winter weather.

 My only reservation is that the latches get bumped open on occasion and that makes me a little paranoid when I have to check my babies planeside when I fly. Solution? A case cover custom made by Autumn Wind.

The Cerne Abbas Hill Giant lives about 15 miles west from the Rives/Bailey ancestral home of Blanford Forum, Dorset. There is a speculation it was made during the English Civil War, likely that the figure is a parody of Cromwell, mockingly referred to as "England's Hercules" by his enemies - Another ancestral connection; we were royalists, which is partly the reason we ended up in Virginia all those years ago.

Autumn Wind Custom Sewing & Design

Betty Vornbrock

715 Peacock dr. 

Hillsville, Va 24343

email: autwind@earthlink.net

Dear readers,

 You guys are well aware that I starve to afford the commute to Western NC, where I play guitar with the Forge Mountain Diggers. The show was on the other foot this past week when Allison and David came up here to NYC. On Tues, we played in Brooklyn with Wyios' bassist Joebass at superfine.

  There was an obligatory rage upon the Baggot Inn Jam on Wed.

Thurs brought us to the NYC Barndance. An idea hatched by Rhys Jones and myself last year and carried on very succesfully by David Harvey.

Here: have a look: 

 Allison calls a Texas Star

Caller David Harvey asks us to pick up the tempo; no problem!

 I can't remember how excatly I met Tommy Jarrell's cousin, Clellan; and neither did he. He was a good freind during my weird little sojourn in Richmond, Va at the end of the century before I moved to NYC. He religiously attended the Mt Airy and Glax fiddlers' conventions. And made a pint to get myself and a few of the regulars of the Central Va Oldtime scene involved in WXGI's opry style show:  "Hometown Radio Review". He drove around in a tricked out Camaro, was sober as a judge and was "a real mensch". I'll miss you ol' boy.

>>Richmond Times Dispatch 03/02/07

  Having grown up in Salem, Va with my Granddad and Great-Granddad being song collecting Southside Virginia country doctors; let's say I have my own opinions on the subject. However strong the urge was to dopeslap John Herald for supposedly "discovering" Doc Watson (or saying,"Oh, I never pay my band." after playing bass for three sets w/ him to Lower East Side hipsters who emptied their fat wallets into the tipjar - while he looked back and gushed,"Boy! You're the genuine article!" all night.) Oh dear, I have rapidly digressed into character assasination! I forget we all have hard times, some of us more than others. In spite of my spite. Folks like John and Mike and Pete and Roger and David and Andy and Susan and Mike and John and Winnie and Marc and Steve and Lou and Henry et al poured tons of love, devotion and time into southern/mountain music and helped bring it to a much wider audience. Whether or not they "saved" it, "discovered" it , what-have-you; the point is tirelessly up for the exhausting debate.

 Me, I just wanna stay up all night and pick guitar. That said, a firsthand account of the phenomenon has been very thoughfully wrought  by the pen of Steve "St. Wish" Wishnevsky. Not only does he have the personal experience to back up the story; he posseses a strong command of language, idiom and rhetoric resulting in a read that is at once informative, hilarious, insulting and nostalgic. No small feat.

  Included are interviews with Mike Seeger, Roger Sprung, Pete Stamfel, Joe Thirift, Nacy "banjo" Sluys and more (yours truly). "How The Hippies Ruin't Hillbilly Muisc" interweaves a firstahnd account with some historical records and a wealth of interjections from the rouges gallery , your reactions will range from, "wow, I didn't know that..." to laughing too hard to turn the page.

  Think you know something about "my" music? Buy this book and we'll all have a good laugh next time we get together to pick one.

buy it here... 

or here...

In the UK? Buy it here...

Augusta Metro Spirit

 Dave Brockie aka, Oderus Urungerus; the rubber monster frontman for GWAR - who's brainchild DEATH PIGGY remains the high water mark of the Richmnod, Va hardcore scene - has a personal site that's well worth the time squandered having a look at. I've always been a fan, an he has a pretty eloquent use of verbage, for being a career rubber monster. As our "fearless" leader is planning to commit more troops to the ground in Iraq and some other fucking brilliant ideas to fight the "War on Terror", I propose that we fight terror and fear mongering in a more intelligent way. Don't believe the hype, ask ALOT of questions, and do be afraid of being stupid.

click here> Here, have a look at the Maggotmaster's views from just days after the event horizion.

And when you done, go look at the rest of the site...theres no shame in pissing yourself.

from klezmer fiddler, Bob Cohen's Blog - DUMNEAZU

Sunday, January 07, 2007 --> -->

Breaking Up Christmas!

Like a lot of folks who play Klezmer music, I got my start playing American traditional folk music back in the 1970s. New York was a magnet for folk music, and there was a very active scene of people playing traditional Appalachian fiddle music and old-time southern music styles. One peculiarity of the New York Appalachian fiddle and bluegrass scene was that almost all of the local music enthusiasts were either Jewish or Italian. Many of the musicians who became the backbone of the east coast Klezmer revival, such as Henry Sapoznik and mandolinist Andy Statman, were regulars at the old-time music jam sessions that were held at the Eagle Tavern on 14th Steet. Young New York musicians would make the pilgrimage south to North Carolina or West Virginia to learn to play at the feet of some of the old masters of traditional folk fiddling, like Tommy Jarrell of Toast, North Carolina...Tommy's style (generally known as "Round Peak" style) became the New York City default mode for fiddling. Tommy Jarrell's father, Ben Jarrell, had been the fiddler in the obscure but wonderful string band "Da Costa Woltz's Southern Broadcasters" who recorded gramophone sides for the Gennet Record Company in 1928. Da Costa Woltz's Southern Broadcasters were what substituted for punk rock during my high school years. MP3 recordings of the band are here.Tommy Jarrell 's style of fiddle - full of off-kilter synchopated bowing and open tunings - was the meat and 'taters of the 70's New York fiddle scene, since Tommy was a living link to an archaic music tradition that was already, by the 1970s, fast disappearing. One day Jarrell made an offhand comment to banjo player Henry Sapoznik about all the Jews playing Appalachian folk fiddle - "Hank, ain't your people got any music of their own?" Sapoznik - whose organizational skills are as amazing as his old time banjo chops - set about answering that question and the beast we know as the New York Klezmer Revival was set in motion. (Henry's book, Klezmer! Jewish Music From Old World to Our World is a must read for those trying to sort out all the meaty contradictions of the early Klezmer revival.)Tommy Jarrell makes an appearance in Appalachian Journey, an online video available at the Folkstreams website. Documentay film maker Les Blank featured Tommy Jarrell in his 1983 film I Will Sprout Wings and Fly. Mr. Jarrell passed away in 1985, but a lot of younger musicians were the inheritors of his repetoire and musical tenacity. The link between New York and the Round Peak music scene was pioneered by Ray Alden, a NYC math teacher and banjo player who researched the styles played by people like Tommy and Fred Cockerham and brought their lively, deeply moving (and highly non-commercial) music to urban audiences with some great recordings. Ray has also kept tabs on the traditional music scenes around the US in his Young Fogies series (highly recommended!) So I was pleasantly bowled over last night when I arrived at a New York party to find Ray Alden and his fretless banjo sitting at the center of an old time fiddle jam session. Just like the old days!The party was organized by fiddler/guitarist Thomas Bailey (seen above sawing a violin in half) at the home of one of his friends in Manhatten. Tom - a native Virginian who is also first rate guitarist who sings with great style - is one of those rare people in the US who can cobble together a full time living as a traditional musician, and should be touring Europe and the Britlands soon in the future. And Man, can they throw a party! I know people, like our friend Tom Popper in Budapest, who take their party-throwing skills very, very seriously, but my hat is off to Thomas' friend Guy, who let a bunch of itinerant banjo-twangers turn his beautiful west side apartment into the northern equivalent of a North Carolina "Breaking Up Christmas" party. Incredible food and wine were served to people whose poetic skills were reduced to howling crude verses like:

If you wanna get your eye knocked out,
If you wanna get your fill
If you wanna get your ashes hauled
Go up to Sugar Hill....

I haven't been to a fiddle session in the US yet on this trip and, for me, this was more fun than a man should have with his pants on. Ripping old tunes, fine singing, people who really respect the music they play and play it well. Fiddlers Sarah Alden and Harris Wulfson also showed up. Both of them have done their hard time traipsing around east Europe learning music from local Gypsy and peasant musicians. Sarah plays with the Luminescent Orchestrii, part of New York's oddly categorized "Gypsy Punk" scene. She's got a great ear for Romanian and Transylvanian fiddle styles, and we all had an impromptu Romanian fiddle session in the back room around 2 AM...
Jeebus!... where in the world would anybody allow you to play three-fiddle Moldavian dance tunes in their apartment at 2 in the frigging morning? And get away with it? My hat is off to Thomas, Mozell, and Guy and their friends for hosting a fantastic party. My tip off to the party was the eminence gris-gris of the New York ethnic music scene, Bob Godfried. Bob is a one-man nerve center for all music happening in the NY folk and ethnic music scenes, a walking encyclopedia of music trivia, history, instrument repair tips, and exhaustive bits of Bronxiana. If there is a Chaldean bar that features oud music in Yonkers, or a Ghanaian Highlife band playing a bar in Queens, Bob knows about it. Need an Azerbaijani accordion tuned? He's your man. Wondering where to find rare Bosnian Sevdah music CDs in the Bronx? Up his alley. Coming in from Lousiana with your Cajun Band short a member? Call Bob G. Without him I would be a babe lost in the woods of the NY music scene. In the photo above we see Mr. Godfried playing a vintage Strad-o-Lin, which were cheap mandolins mass produced before the 1960s that almost all of us NY musicians owned at one time or other. When you are jamming in a room full of valuable vintage Gibson guitars, Vega banjos, and other fine old instruments it takes cojones the size of bowling balls to whip out a despised little Strad-o-lin, but these little plywood babies really scream in a decidedly impolite manner above the din of the banjos and fiddles. Long Live Big Cojones and little Strad-o-Lins!

  Pardon me while I blow my own horn on behalf of or little Old Time Music scene here in NYC.  There has always been a fair share of quality fiddlers and banjo pickers here since the 1850s or earlier. The 60s had the New Lost City Ramblers, the  70s and the 80s sported the likes of The Fly By Night Stringband and Conte's Canebrake Rattlers.

  I moved here in '01 and set off to raise the bar again with the help of Jason Sypher, Marc Horowitz, Leah Wells, Jim Connant, Nathaniel Rowan, Brian Slattery, Steve Arkin, Sarah Alden, James Ruchala, Richie Stearns, Benny Gould, Henry Hample, just to name a few. However things really got a big lift when Rhys Jones, Christina Wheeler moved here from Chicago and Joe Bass came out of hiding.

  I'd boast we have a pretty damn good session every Sunday night at the Puck Fair Bar on Lafayette St. And this recording of "Walkin' In The Parlor", made by Joe Bass with a simple MP3 recorder, is a fine portrait of how much fun we have.

  We invite y'all to come join us sometime if you're visiting The City.

Here's what Joe Newberry of "Big Medicine" had to say about The Forge Mountain Diggers in the latest issue of the Old Time Herald:

         The Forge Mountain Diggers began life as a pick-up band at the Mt. Airy Fiddlers Convention a few years back.  No fools, fiddler David Bass, banjo player Allison Williams, and guitarist Thomas Bailey realized that they had something special and made it official  not long after. 

          Their self-titled debut CD brought all of the energy and drive of a honking festival session right into my living room.  And, just like a session, the CD gets faster and tighter as it goes along.  David, Allison, and Thomas have chosen some of the best-loved tunes and songs in the repertoire, and they do them right.  Recorded and mixed by Jerry Brown at Chapel Hill's Rubber Room, the CD sounds great, with crisp vocals and instruments that are balanced and full.

          What struck me upon repeated listening is that these folks hold nothing back when they are playing and singing.  The first time I heard the CD I wondered if they employed a snare drum on some of the tunes.  Nope, it was just Thomas Bailey pounding the guitar for all it was worth.  The same goes for the fiddling of David Bass and Allison Williams on the banjo - they play flat-out.  The band does not have an official bass player, but Meredith McIntosh fills that slot, along with fine harmony vocals, on the CD.  Meredith's playing is amazing - I'd advise the Diggers to make her an offer. 

          Thomas Bailey and Allison Williams share lead vocal duties.  Allison's voice falls comfortably on the folk side, which brings a freshness to songs like "My Home's Across the Blue Ridge Mountain," "I've Always Been a Rambler," and the charming "Likes Likker Better Than Me."  Thomas Bailey is simply one of my favorite singers.  His "Run Mountain" and "Hold the Woodpile Down" set the bar high for anyone singing those numbers hereafter.

          It is great to hear that incredible bow arm of David Bass out and about again.  Favorite tunes of mine here include "Lost Gal," "Callahan," and the staggering "Chilly Winds."  David and Allison play really well together, with just the right amount of push and pull between the fiddle and the banjo.

          Caveats?  Only a couple.  Two or three more moderately paced fiddle tunes would have brought just the right amount of variety to the mix.  And, I would have left off "The Boatman," which has some fiddle intonation problems.

          This is a disc to play all year long, but might prove particularly useful in those sunshine deprived days of February when it seems that festival season will never, ever get here.  Put it on, turn it up, and in the words of the Solemn Old Judge George D. Hay, "Let 'er go boys."  Highly recommended.

-Joe Newberry

Thanks Joe...

and y'all don't forget, if we can't come to your town soon enough, you can pick up a copy of our CD at cdbaby.com